The Xenomorph Colony
by Sachmis
Summary: '"What happened?" I demanded, but looking down at the comatose hunters, I could see before they answered: one of the spider-monsters was attached to each of their faces.' Looking for a Beta. NOT on Hiatus, take my word for it.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Prologue

The Beast rose its head to sniff the cool air. It's long black tail whipped side to side in anticipation. The long blade adorning the end of the tail glinted in the faint light of the moon, filtering through the treetops.

This is the hunt of a lifetime. The prey, strong and agile. But that was the point: the stronger the prey, the greater the reward.

A solitary drop of acidic saliva dripped from it's mouth and burned into the forest floor as it searched slowly for the distinctive scent of the quarry.

It's head suddenly jerked to the side. It had found the scent.

Growling lowly, the xenomorph crouched to the ground, and leapt towards the prey. The huntress was now the hunted.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Thalia POV

I crept carefully through the forest. The a handful of other hunters around me in the trees, and two more on either side: Heather and Jessie.

The prey was... difficult, to track. But it was paramount that we did, as Artemis herself had come to give me the mission, and told me it was of the utmost importance.

Artemis hadn't said exactly what we were tracking, but that couldn't be helped. Whatever it was it had Artemis rattled, and that alone was more then enough to worry me.

"Thalia," whispered Heather, "Something's watching us."

"Yes, I sense it to," I muttered.

"Are we strong enough to hold of an attack now?" it was a good question. Most of the hunters were further west when Artemis alerted me. I only had me and nine other hunters here now.

Then I heard on a withered old oak tree to the left. It looked to be a massive spider, almost a foot across. Before I could say something, it leapt off the tree, strait for my face.

I shrieked while simultaneously putting an arrow through it. As it's corpse thudded to the ground, I heard four more cries and shrieks all around me.

"Is everyone alright?" I shouted into the night. Before anyone could respond a long black monster burst through the underbrush and tackled Jessie. Like magic, seven arrows appeared in its back. It sent up a blood curdling howl as it's blood squirted all over Jessie.

It leaped off in an effort to escape. I sent a second arrow through the length of the monster's skull, ending it's retreat instantly.

I almost went to identify why it hadn't turned to dust, but I stopped short. Jessie was probably injured. I turned around just in time to watch he rest of her body dissolve into the ground.

"Everyone get over here!" I yelled

Two of the other hunters got to me immediately, and seconds after that, the three more arrived, carrying the last two between them.

"What happened?" I demanded, but looking down at the comatose hunters, I could see before they answered: one of the spider-monsters was attached to each of their faces.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three  
Thalia POV

The spiders weren't coming off of Margaret and Alex. We learned that at the same time we learned that they had acid for blood. Margaret could get by without half an ear.

We really didn't know what to do about them. So we brought them with us. It was the unanimous decision that we'd go for help at Camp Half-Blood. It didn't need to be unanimous, but it helped.

Margaret and Alex were carried between us on makeshift stretchers. Normally, we would have stayed and given Jessie a proper funeral but... no I can't think about that. We had to keep moving as fast as we could, but there was still more than forty miles to go. It had been only three hours, but the stress was already showing on the other hunters.

Then I heard a thump, like someone bumped a stretcher into a tree. Then someone yelped, instantly everyone was ready with an arrow, except Heather. Heather was staring in shock at Margaret's spider, it was... dead. The jolt from the tree must have dislodged it's corpse from Margaret's face.

"Check their vitals, both of them!" I ordered. Everyone knew what I meant, set down the stretchers, and got to it.

"This one's dead too!" called a girl checking Alex.

"What about Margret and Alex?"

"Asleep, both of them." answered the same girl.

My mind raced. What could have done this to the spiders? Why would they go through all the trouble of latching onto their faces and drop dead less than three hours later?What was happening?

Alex's eyes fluttered open and stopped my train of thought. That could wait, Alex and Margaret couldn't.

"What happened?" she muttered.

"I was wondering the same thing."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Thalia POV

When we arrived at Camp Half-Blood, we were exhausted. Alex and Margaret went strait to the Infirmary. They'd seemed fine since regaining consciousness a few hours earlier, but I wasn't risking it.

Despite my worst fears, however, they checked out fine. Now, siting in the Artemis Cabin, I assessed the situation. But I couldn't find a single thing I could do. I needed to talk to Annabeth.

We'd have to stay the night.

Then it hit me: I hadn't talked to Jason either. I stood up, I had some people to talk to. A conch sounded almost immediately. "Ugh, okay, everybody lets go eat."

"Sounds good," mumbled Heather as she stood up. Various forms of agreement came in around the room.

* * *

I tore into a turkey drumstick. More accurately, I tore into what was left of a turkey drumstick. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until I sat down.

"I'll talk to Annabeth and Jason after I eat," I thought, "They'll understand."

I was just finishing when Margaret started spasming. She screamed like she was being tortured, horribly. Almost immediately after, Alex started spasming as well.

"Apollo, get over here!" I ordered as I rushed to them. It went without saying something was wrong. Six Apollo Cabiners hurried over while the rest of their cabin, the rest of the camp, stared in abject horror.

Their chests looked like something was forcing its way out. Then, a crack, a loud, terrible crack. No, two. Then a spirt of blood from both hunters. In the crater where each of their chests once were, spilling over with blood, was a flesh colored serpent.

No one moved. No one breathed. Then a shriek from one broke the silence, answered by the other, and they rushed off into the woods.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five  
Leo POV

I was working on the Argo II when I heard the news. I'd decided to skip diner, this was more important.

So, I was working on an energy surge that, if unattended, could result in a small nuclear explosion. You know: Tuesday.

Anyway, I was trying to stop a potential explosion from killing us all when a cabiner from Hermes appeared next to me out of breath and thoroughly shaken. "You need... to... get to... the pavilion." he gasped.

I dashed there as fast as possible. When I arrived the first thing I saw were the corpses. Two horribly mutilated corpses. Then the six hunters gathered around the corpses mourning. The remains of other hunters maybe? It was hard to tell, there was just so much blood. Then Jason's sister, Thalia, having a fairly loud argument with Chiron. Next was Jason pulling together a few of the other campers: Him, Piper, Areas Cabin, etc. All already suited up in battle gear.

What was going on?

Running up to Jason, I called "Hey!"

Jason glanced up. His face brightened for a fraction of a second, then back to business. "Leo, we need everyone possible for this."

"Yeah, about that: what's happening?"

"The short version? Or the long and gruesome version?" asked Jason, mildly sarcastically.

"The short version," interjected Clarisse, "We've got a security breach, monsters inside the perimeter. And if what we've gathered from Thalia is accurate, they're pretty tough.

Piper gave Clarisse a funny look, "That's _one_ way to put it."

"We don't have time," Clarisse, "If those things get any worse than the instant death, we need to hurry." Clarisse:  
voice of reason. A bit of an oxymoron, but still. Whatever was going on needed to stop, the impending nuclear explosion could wait for 71 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six  
Leo POV

Walking through the forest was not fun. Granted, last time I'd been alone, unarmed, untrained, with no one who knew where I was, and with a deadline of like, twelve hours to find a giant bronze dragon rampaging around that might try to kill me. I miss Festus.

Yes, walking through the forest sucked far more last time, but that won't stop me from complaining. Besides, last time I was looking for a dragon the size of a house. This time I'm looking for monsters the size of cats.

There is, of course, another problem, although I seem to have forgotten what it was. Too bad, one less thing to thing to complain about.

I held a fair sized flame in my hand to help light the way for me, one ticked off hunter, a bloodthirsty guy from Ares whose name I don't know, and a girl from Hermes who had to be here because the hunter wouldn't talk to me or the Ares guy.

"Anyone see anything?" the Ares guy asked again. Of course, no one had.

I was about to say something to the affect of "no" but longer, when I did see something, something much bigger than a cat, something _black_.

"Hang on," I called back. Then forward "Who's there? Show yourself!"

The dark shape moved towards us, and stopped. Then the dark shape answered back, "Aw, Leo, I thought we were on better terms than that."

No one in our group spoke. Everyone was rather taken aback.

Then, out of the shadows, or more accurately, into the light, stepped Nico di Angelo.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven  
Nico's POV

Leo was clearly surprised to see me. I'd expected as much, I hadn't told anyone I was coming. I hadn't really intended to come here to start with, but after visiting Hazel, I just had a feeling.

The guy behind Leo still had his spear leveled at me, he seemed unsure as what to do now. But the other two seemed to recognize me. One was a hunter, I could tell by her outfit, the other girl had that look that the Hermes kids always had.

"Hey, not to be rude or anything, but why are you here?" asked the Hermes girl. Leo, still holding a progressively larger flame in his hand, shot her a look, but I could tell he concurred with the question.

Leo turned to me, "Well, actually, why are you here? We're kinda in the middle of a minor crisis."

"Bring me up to speed," I replied.

Leo finished his explanation for the crisis. It sounded bad. "Well," I said after a pause, "I'll help, but I'll work alone. Tell you if I find anything."

I turned to leave, but he hunter grabbed my arm and stopped me. "No," she said firmly, "If you find anything, kill it."

I was surprised, but agreed, than I stepped into the shadows, literally. When I came out, things went south fast.

* * *

Annabeth POV

The search yielded no result for some time, good or bad. But that changed all at once when a scream echoed through the night. Only about a hundred feet away.

Thalia's head jerked up, "We have to get there, fast!"

"Definitely," I answered.

We charged through the undergrowth, making a lot of noise, but we didn't care. Thalia had been telling me about their first encounter with these things, and I didn't want to take chances.

We came up to a clearing, and stopped short at the edge. Inside the clearing was Nico di Angelo, his Stygian Iron sword in his right hand, and a torch in his left. He was standing over the unmoving body of a camper, I didn't know who. But his attention wasn't on us, it was on the large dark shapes circling the edge of the light.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight  
Nico's POV

The Hellhounds circled me, waiting to strike. I couldn't take all of them if they came at once, seven was just to many at once. I glanced at the girl below me, she was breathing, but only just.

Normally, Hellhounds wouldn't attack me, I'm the son of Hades after all. But this was different, they hadn't started this, I had. They'd been to the middle of deciding wether the girl laying below me was worth eating when I arrived. They saw me as a challenger of their dominance, and a threat to them eating.

I had to do something, the girl's torch wouldn't hold them much longer, and it certainly didn't save her.

A silver arrow shown in the moonlight as it sailed to the skull of a Hellhound. It was gold dust before it could flinch. Two bounded towards the source of the arrow, and the other four charged me.

"Crud," I muttered.

The first I decapitated, the second skewered itself on my sword. The third I sidestepped then I just held out my sword, opening up a fatal gash down it's side. The forth turned tail and fled.

Thalia and Annabeth pushed through the foliage into the clearing. I glanced down at the girl on the ground and realized we were both coated in gold dust.

"Hey Nico!" called Thalia.

"Hey, it's a good thing you got here when you did I was re..." I trailed off because Thalia had froze staring at the ground beside me.

"What is it?" asked Annabeth. Then we both followed her line off sight to a spider a foot across, laying dead a few feet from the girl's head. I don't know how I missed it, but Thalia had gone white.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Nico's POV

"What is it?" whispered Annabeth. Thalia didn't move. Didn't blink.

"Forget it," I muttered. I stooped down and put a hand to the girl's neck, checking for a pulse. There it was, _dudump_, _dudump_, _dudump_. I looked to her eyes, they were moving under the lids.

Then, suddenly, without warning, her eyes snapped open, and she was screaming. Screaming like Kronos himself was carving her heart out with his scythe.

Thalia snapped out of it, and quickly drew a knife. Annabeth followed suit, unnerved.

I stepped back, sword at the ready. To bad no one was looking behind us. Because as we stood, almost hypnotized by the girl screaming in pain, the Hellhounds were struggling to reform behind us, and they were not pleased.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Nico's POV

It hit me like the Hellhound would a few seconds later, something was pushing _out_ of her chest. My mind went blank. What could this be? Was _this_ what had the camp on panic mode?

Then the aforementioned Hellhound hit me. Two more hit Annabeth and Thalia. We rolled, me and the Hellhound. I was too close to effectively use my sword. I didn't even notice when he girl stopped screaming.

Then my Hellhound dissolved, a stray arrow from Thalia, still fighting for her life, had come through the chest cavity. Lucky it didn't hit _me_.

I turned to help, but instead found that they had fought free of them and were fighting for their lives. I'd be willing to bet that these two were the best of the pack, probobly only killed in the first place by Thalia's arrows, and she only had three more. Enough to kill them both for sure, but not enough to do more then escape as they reformed.

"Nico!" Annabeth called over the clash, "We have to retreat and regroup!"

"What about the girl?" I called back, but looking at her, it was clear that not even Apollo himself could have fixed her. The remains of her ribcage was in tatters around the remains of her corpse.

"I'll meet you at camp!" I called over, grabbing two rocks.

"Nico..."

I ignored her, and threw the rocks at the Hellhounds. My genius plan worked. Now was the part where I ran of, and killed these two when I was good and ready.

* * *

Running though the forest at night was great fun, _if_ you could see in the dark, and I could. I was going to stop short in a bout ten yards and use the hounds' own momentum to cut them open, then shadow travel back to camp, then sleep for a week.

But my plans were ruined when two consecutive death yelps echoed behind me. I stopped and got in a defensive position. Out of the darkness walked on all fours, cocky as a massive black cat, sure that no foe was a threat, a dark, shiny, sleek, creature. Terrifying on a primal level. Stoping not five feet from me, it's mouth moved to show sharp pearly whites, and behind them, more pearly whites, almost like a mouth within its mouth. It snarled. Something glinted in the air just behind it, rising like a knife.


	11. Shawn Avilluso

A/N: the long awaited, longer chapter is here. A special thanks to DoomStone: my favorite reviewer.

Chapter Eleven

Annabeth POV

We wanted to follow Nico, but he didn't want us to, besides, he could take care of himself. Anyway, following Nico without his knowledge leads to being stranded in the middle of nowhere. He shadow travels off and leaves you behind.

No way around it, we went back to camp. Maybe someone else found something. It was unlikely.

A conch horn blew in the distance. It was the signal we'd established for us to move back to camp. "Good timing," I muttered softly.

Glancing to the side I saw that Thalia was, understandably, pissed off. It would probably be wise to _avoid_ that hornets' nest for the time being.

* * *

It had been nearly fifteen minutes of walking in uncomfortable silence, when Thalia spotted a light bobbing up and down, maybe, twenty yards off. Pointing silently, she indicated that we follow it. I nodded, and we closed in.

Five yards to go, and the light stopped. There was a slight rustling, and... "Who's there? Show yourself! You can't hind, I can here your breathing."

I knew that voice. "Shawn? Shawn, that you?" I called over. I already knew it was: 'I can here your breathing.' Shawn was the only person I knew who had a voice anything like the speaker's, and would say something like that.

"Annabeth? Annabeth!" there was a sound of crashing through the bushes, and into our little five foot wide opening, tumbled Shawn Avilluso. He was ten years old, a little over four and a half feet tall, had sandy brown hair, slightly pale skin, dark blue eyes, and, all of his fingers. Right now, he was covered in grime, had a twig sticking out of his hair, and a grin threatening to split his face in two.

"Hey, Shawn," I said, giving him a hand getting back up. I couldn't help but smile slightly, his good humor was infectious. "Have you met Thalia?" I asked, once he was standing.

"Not before now," he said jovially. He held out his hand, smiling "Shawn Avilluso, son of Athena, at you're service."

Thalia's right eye twitched slightly, but Shawn didn't notice. Shaking his hand she replied, "Pleased to meet you," this was said with a hint of sarcasm, but Shawn _couldn't_ notice anything short of total saturation, "I'm..." but Shawn cut her off.

"...Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, current leader of the Hunters of Artemis." this took Thalia aback, but before she could do anything but look surprised he continued. "You'd be surprised the amount you can learn from people who don't think you can hear them." he laughed at this. Thalia frowned, and Shawn continued to be oblivious.

Stepping between the two, _before_ Thalia could decide to cut his head off, I changed the subject. "Where's the rest of your teem?"

Shawn gave me a slightly confused look. " You know I don't work well with people..."

"Yes but you had a teem, _remember_?" this time it was Shawn who's left eye twitched. Claiming he didn't remember something was considered insulting to him.

"Of course I remember! I did bring some automatons to work with me..." he trailed off.

"And?" I prodded.

"Well, there was this giant-scorpion..."

"Forget it, we're getting away from the issue!" Thalia exploded.

Shawn flinched at this. "Forget it? I can't! And which issue? The Romans, the Argo II, or the more immediate snake-demons running around the forest?"

I smacked my forehead behind Shawn. Tell the guy to guess, and he's liable to give you all the options. Meanwhile, Thalia seemed to be trying to decide if she could getaway with knocking him unconscious.

* * *

Nico's POV

I parried the strike from the razor sharp tail-blade. I stabbed forward, the creature jumped back. I sidestepped a stab and cut down, missing by millimeters. It occurred to me that if I didn't have such good night vision, I'd be dead many times over by now.

The blade embedded in the ground where I had been less than a second before.

"Have to find a way out of here," I muttered, I could shadow travel off, but in the time it took to do so, this... thing, could kill me. I couldn't run, the creature was to fast. There was nothing I could do.

I, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, was going to die.


	12. The Price of Silence

A/N: Hey, I bet you _all_ thought I was dead, right? I actually wrote this chapter about a month ago (or more) and then forgot to post it. _Please_ don't come after me with pitchforks and torches.

Chapter Twelve

Annabeth POV

We'd been walking for twenty minutes, and could see the glow of the bonfire in the distance. So we'd be going for maybe ten more. Unfortunately, Shawn might not live that long. See, he hadn't stopped talking yet, and Thalia was getting an increasingly murderous look in her eyes. Shawn, of course, had no idea.

The kid was always insisting on how brilliant he was, and on the whole I had to agree. But sometimes...

Then I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Seemed to be that Thalia had finally snapped. Couldn't exactly blame her: Shawn was one of the richest people in camp for the specific reason that everyone kept paying him to go away. That didn't mean I wasn't going to intervene, I just couldn't blame her.

Anyway, Thalia had pined Shawn to a tree. He still looked really nonchalant, but he rarely grasped when he was in real danger.

"Thalia!" I exclaimed, surprised, "Let him go!"

Ignoring me, Thalia growled "Shut... Up... Now..."

"Why?" asked Shawn, genuinely confused.

I decided to step in before Thalia did something she'd regret, and grabbing a coin in my pocket, said calmly "Shawn, if you stop talking until we get back to the campfire, I'll give you a Drachma."

"Done." he said, grabbing the drachma I held out to him.

Thalia let him down and he got right back to walking to camp. Sensing the question from Thalia I answered "It's the only proven way to get him to do something, without pissing him off, anyone has yet found.

Thalia kept going, now grumbling under her breath.

* * *

After all of the search parties reported back, none having found anything, Chiron dismissed everyone to their cabins saying "We'll have better luck in better light." As I headed off, I noticed Leo, wandering around the crowd, looking distressed.

I immediately went over to him, Shawn following close behind. "Leo, what's the matter?" I asked.

"Nico, have you seen him?"

"Nico? Nico di Angelo? I didn't think he was here," said Shawn suddenly looking worried.

"No, I ran into him too. But I haven't seen him since," I answered, concerned.

You could practically see the lightbulb go off over Shawn's head, "I have to ask Thalia something," he said, running to the other side of the pavilion where Thalia was just leaving.

"Shawn! Wait!" I called, but it was no use.

We had no choice but to follow him, Leo muttered "Does he have a death wish?"

Arriving just after Shawn we had time to see him get her attention. "Thalia. Is this bad? And I mean _really_ bad?"

Thalia, taken aback, answered simply "Yes."

Shawn's grin was back and, turning to me and Leo, "I know how to find Nico."


	13. I Mean REALLY Annoying

A/N: Okay, I may have actually died that time, but don't worry! I'm pirating wi-fi off Elysium.

Chapter Thirteen

Leo POV

"So, where are we?" I asked. The ten foot tall, fifteen foot wide door made of solid rock looming in front of us was new to me. The frame, if you could call it that, continued five feet from the door on all sides, and was one foot thicker going outwards. On top of the door, imbedded in the frame, was a massive stone owl with rubies for eyes, three feet tall, with it's wings outstretched. The entire thing was sunk into the side of the small hill on the outskirts of the forest.

"My bunker," answered Shawn, like it was obvious. The owl's eyes lit up and bathed Shawn in red light. The light stopped as quickly as it started and the massive door began to slide, ever so slowly, to the side. When the opening was about two feet wide, Shawn headed through.

"Annabeth," I tried again, "Where are we?"

She gestured for me to follow her through, and as soon as the four of us had entered, the door slid shut. Overhead lights turned on one by one, revealing the large entry room we stood in, and the hallway just beyond.

"When Shawn first came to camp," Annabeth began, "he spent nearly all his time tinkering in the forges."

I nodded to continue.

"Well, he can be annoying. _Really_ annoying."

I think I was beginning to see where this was headed.

"After a month or two, your siblings were desperate to get rid of him. They tried bribery, which normally works with Shawn, but the problem was that he didn't have anywhere he'd rather be," explained Annabeth, as we went down the hallway. Every now and then, we'd pass a door, or a corridor branching off to the side.

"Shawn can't stand being around people, a few is fine, but say six or more and he gets really uncomfortable," Annabeth paused, like she wasn't sure how to continue. "You remember how I am about architecture?"

Again, I nodded.

"Well, while I'm good at fitting everything together into a large finished product, Shawn's more interested in either the smaller scale designs, or really _huge_ plans. This leaves a pretty big gap of in-expertise in the middle and gets someone else to put them together into things of that range.

"Anyway, Beckendorf had an idea, Cabin 9 would give Shawn five automatons of comparable abilities to a human, and get him started on _this_ place," she said, gesturing to the walls around them, "And, in exchange, Shawn would go away from the forges and never-ever-ever come back."

"Wait a minute," I said, holding my hands up in the 'stop' gesture, "Cabin 9 built _all_ this, _just_ to get your half-brother over there, to go away?!"

"One: he can really get under your skin _fast_, just ask Thalia. And two: no. They _started_ this off for him. He had three of the automatons make _more_ automatons, and had the others expand."

"What does he _do_ with all this?"

It was Shawn who answered, "Most of it is unused and only there just in case. Besides, it's only a fraction the size of your Bunker 9, but I'm not asking what you do with all of it," he called back, a little irritably, for some reason.

I could see a door way just ahead, probably the one we were here for.

"What's his problem?" I whispered to Annabeth.

"He's just annoyed because everyone thinks that what he means by 'just in case' is more than a little paranoid," she whispered back.

"What do you mean?"

"I can hear you two whispering, and it's not paranoia! It's just being prepared for likely disaster scenarios."

"Shawn, you define a 'likely disaster scenario' as any of your many, many, fears trying to take over the world," Annabeth said in an exasperated tone.

"No one thinks it'll happen until it does."

"I'm sorry, when the Carboniferous Period suddenly launches a surprise attack on modern-day-Earth, this will all pay off," droned Annabeth, rolling her eyes.

"I accept you apology," said Shawn, the sarcasm flying _way_ over his head.

Before anyone could correct him, we came to the door, which slide open quickly and quietly, revealing a room chockfull of computers. The whole room probably wasn't bigger than a large classroom, less than thirty feet wide, with only the one door. But the computers took up most of the space there was, with monitors all over the place, of all shapes and sizes. There were processors jammed into every nook and cranny, and I had a sneaking suspicion that they extended into the walls as well. All of them were linked together, meaning this kid had a lot of processing power in here.

Shawn sat himself down in the only chair in the room, one of those spinning chairs with wheels. It was situated in front of a keyboard and mouse, the only visible ones in the room. I assumed that the monitor directly in front of them was the main monitor.

"So," started Thalia, the first word she'd said since we arrived. "How is this going to find Nico?"

"Well, I setup a surveillance system that came online a few weeks before the Battle of the Labyrinth, and Chiron immediately told me I couldn't even turn it on except in the most dire of circumstances. Something about it being an 'invasion of privacy,' can you believe that? Anyway, the first and only time it saw full usage was during the aforementioned battle. I've obviously been keeping it up to date, but it hasn't seen any real use."

"And now you get to try out your toy," Thalia finished, sarcastically.

"Precisely," said Shawn, missing the sarcasm once more.

I watched intently as he typed away furiously for several moments. Then he stopped.

"_You are attempting to access functions restricted by system block Chiron675395,_" intoned a soothing mechanical voice.

Shawn typed something quickly.

"_You are attempting to override system block Chiron675395. To do so would violate agreement ΣΓ275Ω109485-Chiron, accepting for an emergency scenario. Override?_"

"Confirm," stated Shawn clearly.

"_Surveillance System online._"

"Conduct search for Nico di Angelo. Constrict search to Camp Half-Blood. Search type: Active. Priority One."

After a moment the computer spoke again, "_Subject: Nico di Angelo, found. Display Feed?_"

"Affirmative."

Immediately, the monitor showed a, presumably live, video of Nico di Angelo fighting for his life (and loosing, by the looks of it) against... something, I don't what.

But apparently, Shawn did. At least if the 'short' string of curses in Greek, Spanish, Latin, and for good measure, what I'm pretty sure was German, were anything to go by. His eyes where wide, he ran his fingers through his hair, stood up and started to walk away and then seemed to change his mind and came back, and stood there leaning over the keyboard.

"Gods damn it!" he exclaimed on confirmation that the video feed hadn't gone away.

"Shawn, what is it? It can't be that bad, we just go in and bail him out, no problem," said Annabeth reassuringly. But she looked worried, she didn't know what that thing was either.

"No! No, not no problem! Do you have any idea what that is?!" he demanded.

No one did.

"That's not just some everyday monster! That... that thing, is... The Alien."


End file.
